Home: Blaze On Fairy Lights

 As a few of you may know, I moved nearly three weeks ago now so expect this to be the first of many home themed posts I have up my sleeve, as I have developed quite the obsession with homeware! One of my favourite was to achieve that homey feel is with the use of lighting. In particular I have an abundance of candles and fairy lights scattered around my room although today I'm going to share with you my favourite and most recent addition from Blaze On. I was recently sent these Sun Star and Moon lights (£27.50/20 lights) * to review which have proved a huge hit with my housemates since I put them up last week.

I reviced the white version which match my room perfectly although Blaze on have quite the selection of colours in their star sun & moon section. These are basically lights covered with paper to give the light a softer feel and just give a really lovely effect at night. Between these and my candles I rarely feel the need for my bedroom light to be on and love the calming feel these give.

Currently these live on my bookshelf and give my stacks of books a new lease of life, in fact I'd go as far to say that it is now one of my favourite areas of my bedroom and is the one area I seem to get complements on time and time again. I've even had quite a few people ask where they're from!

While the price of these may seem a little steep, I am told that these have a life expectancy of up to 10 years or 100.000 hours, which is more than I can say for my £7.99 ones which are struggling after a year! They also claim to be 'extremely engery efficient' which is great for me as this will be my first time paying my own bills! I wish I could show you these displayed, but sadly my camera fails to capture the magic of these in the dark and my room is miles too dark in the day! So here is a close up of one of the pretty stars in action!

I'd highly recommend having a look at Blaze On's website, even if its just for inspiration as they have some stunning pictures on there! Although if these lights or anything else has caught your eye you can get £5 to spend over on Blaze On with the code STUDENT14 

Freshly Cut by In The Buff

 In all honesty, I don't feature enough smaller brands on this blog. So when I was given the chance to review an item from brand who are relatively new on my radar, 'In The Buff' I jumped at the chance. Something I often love about smaller brands is that they often come complete with a lovely back story. In this case Becky, In the buffs founder set out to create an eyeliner which wouldn't effect false lashes, which was successful and eventually lead to in the buff launching an whole range of pure mineral products. Although being a huge fan of the natural look it was the brands ethos of enhancing natural beauty rather than masking it which drew me in further. 

Today I'm going to be featuring 'Freshly Cut' one of In the Buffs Hint of eyeshadows which are all named and inspired by nature. Despite picking the shade 'Freshly Cut' for myself, It's rare that I find an eyeshadow easy to wear, so when this little beauty quickly made it into my everyday routine I knew I was on to a winner. Priced at £11.00 For 1g of product this is a little more than I'd normally be willing to spend on a single shadow, although after trying this one for myself I think I would happily part with my cash for another, as its rare that I reach for a product on a daily basis (especially eyeshadow).

 I find this eyeshadow an absolute joy to work with, often mineral make up is associated with mess although there is no fuss with this, I simply shake the pot to insure there is some product in the pot before dipping my brush in and getting to work. I find that this just gives a lovely smokey effect to the lids with minimal effort on my part, which stays in place for the most part of the day with a descent primer.

With all of that in mind, I think that this eyeshadow is a great find! It's also worth noting that both the product and the packaging are made in the UK - Something which has become somewhat of a rarity.
You can pick this up for £11.00 here. 

Dream Dots For Spots

I have been having a rough time with my skin lately, so when I heard about Dream Dots* I thought they were the best idea ever. I have a tendency to roll around in my sleep and rub off whatever skin treatment im using overnight, meaning something like this is ideal for me. Dream Dots are basically a medicated patches you place over blemishes of an evening, although I personally think you could get away with wearing these in the day too as they are pretty clear..In fact I've worn these around the house several times on bad skin days and I cant say anyone has noticed.  

For  €14.95 you get a pack of 24 dream dots, which are super easy to use, you just simply cleanse the area you wish to treat at night before placing a Dream Dot over it and peeling off in the morning. Personally I thought the results I got from these were great, infact I don't ever recall a skin treatment doing so much for me before over night, and even with all my moving, the dream dot was still in place come morning!

Although If there's  minor downside to these it's the price. While under 15 euros may seem fab for 24 dream dots, I know many people are like me and rarely suffer from one spot at a time. Normally my spots will occur as part of a break out meaning I have to use quite a few of these at a time and if I was using these everytime a spot occured, a pack wouldn't last long!

Although with that being said, nothing works on my skin like these babies and I will continue to whip these out for days when I need my skin to be at it's best. Even with the slight downside I would recommend these to anyone with spot prone skin, Personally I think they're fab for special occasions!

You can buy Dream Dots here, have you tried them yet?

Empties #3

After moving last weekend, I've been a rather bad blogger and have only pulled my laptop out of its bag twice! But fear not, I am back with one of my biggest empties posts yet! It's been ages since my last one, so understandably they have built up as you may be able to see from my overflowing wash bag!

I'll start with the four items I have from one of my favourite brands, Soap & Glory, The first thing I used up was the Sugar Crush Body Wash (£6.50/500ml), normally I love Soap & Glory shower gels,  and while this was up to the same standards, I feel like the famous 'Sugar crush scent was just too much for me so probably wont be picking up again. The next product I have is the Butter yourself moisture lotion (£10.00/500ml), which to be honest I quite liked until I got half way through the product where the pump just stopped working. There's still a little of this left but I haven't got the Patience. I also managed to finish the Scrub of your life (£7.00/200ml), while I cant say it was my favourite thing S&G have to offer it was nice, although I would probably pick another scrub over this next time. Finally I have my favourite product of the bunch, The Righteous Butter (£10.50/300ml) , this is just a really lovely moisturiser and lasted me a good while too!

I also finished two other body products too. First up is an old favouitre Vaseline Cocoa Radiant lotion (£4.99/400ml) which I just adore, this product works wonders on my skin and is at a great price point too. Secondly is this Nivea Creme Soft Shower Cream (£1.99/250ml) which has the most lovely scent to it! It also left my skin feeling really soft too!

I seem to have finished a whole host of skincare products since my last post! Firstly we have this Una Brennan Calming Creamy Cleanser (£7.99/150ml) which I really enjoyed using, although am unlikely to pick this up again unless there's an offer as I found it a little expensive. I also finished this Neutrogena 2-in-1 wash and mask (£3.79/150ml) which is one of my all time favourites, so I'll definitely be picking that up again! The last skincare products I managed to finish were these two scrubs. Firstly we have this Naturally Radiant Brightening Micro polish (£4.99/75ml), which just didn't give a good enough scrub for my liking! I had the same issue with this Visibly Clear Pore & Shine daily scrub (£4.49/150ml) ..for me nothing has beaten St ives!

Hair wise I finished this Batiste Cherry Dry Shampoo (£2.99/200ml) which I really enjoyed using, although am unlikely to buy again as I love the Vo5 one more. I also finished this Dove dry shampoo (£4.59/200ml)  which I thought was awful so I wont be picking up again. Finally I finished this Macadamia Oil Extract Hair Mask from poundland, and recall enjoying it at the time.

Make up wise I only managed to finish a mascara in the form of Maybelline's The Rocket Mascara (£7.99/9ml) despite having a long history of disliking maybelline mascaras I actually really enjoyed using this and would actually pick it up again. I also managed to finish this Witch blemish gel (£3.29/35ml), I even cut into the tube to finish this! I found that it was really helpful on spots without being too drying on the skin! Next up I managed to finish both my Body Shop day Cream (£11.00/50ml) and Nivea night cream (£4.35/50ml) I thought the pair worked a treat along side each other and would happily buy again! Finally I managed to complete this Simple eyecream (£6.99/15ml) which did a really lovely job, although again this is something I'm only likely to pick up if on offer!

Which products have you completed this month?

September You Beauty Discovery Box

I moan about UK based beauty boxes constantly, but You Beauty have always been a brand who have caught my eye. At just £6.95 they're significantly cheaper than most boxes on the market, and you get to choose two of the products included in the box from a pretty good selection avoiding the disappointment that many beauty boxes bring. Despite loving the look if this box, it wasn't until I saw an offer making this September box completely free that I decided to give it a go and I felt the contents was so amazing that I had to share it with you guys!

The first thing to catch my eye was a lovely surprise in the form of Toni & Guy's Glamour Volume Plumping Whip at £7.19 For 90ml, this product is full size and covers the cost of the whole box. I have fine/flat hair so I'm intrested to see if this does anything for me!

The first product that I actually picked for myself was this wild about beauty lipstick in the shade eve (£15.00). For some reason mine arrived damaged as it's shown below, although I still look forward to trying as it looks like such a lovely shade.

The second and final product I selected was this pixi endless silky eye pen in the shade black cocoa, This is quite a nice sized sample, and the full sized product retails at a £11, so again you're getting your moneys worth.

The final surprises were this make up sponge, these yummy looking teas and a £25 voucher for Hello Fresh. All in all this was a fab box! I'm even tempted to keep my subscription open as I was so impressed! Have you tried You Beauty?

Rio Nail Artist Shimmer & Sparkle

I was recently given this Rio Nail Artist Shimmer & Sparkle set at a blogger meet up I attended, and while its something I would have never picked up for myself, I have really come to really love it over the past couple of weeks. The kit contains three nail polishes, five pots of assorted glitter, two rolls of stripping tape, a detail brush and dotter all for £19.99. Also included in the box is a handy DVD and paper guide for inspiration. I have to admit,  I was pleasantly surprised by this kit and despite my first thoughts that this was a little overpriced for someone as ebay savvy as myself, I would now happily part with my own money for another.

For me what makes the kit worth the money is the quality of the three polishes. The nail art polish was opaque in two coats (each of which dried in record time) and the 3D glitter polishes applied really evenly. Three hours later copying one of the designs off of the box my nails looked a little something like this..

While I cant say the look lasted too long, as I am a terrible picker, I got so many compliments when I wore this look! Have you tried anything from Rio? 

Bourjois 123 Colour Correcting cream

Up until a few months ago I had never tried a CC Cream, so decided to grab this Bourjois one while it was on 3 for 2. As you can see below, this cream is very liquidy in texture, although I think this really helps when it comes to application as allows the CC Cream to blend well into my skin. I like applying this with my Eco tools skin perfecting brush and think the pair work nicely together. This product comes in four shades which is pretty good for a cc cream as generally most brands just have a light or dark shade. I have the lightest shade, ivory, which to be honest I feel like its a little too dark for my skintone, but this isn't much of an issue as this product blends so nicely.

 In terms of coverage this is pretty nice, obviously it isn't the highest in the world as it is a CC cream although it really covers what I need to to in terms of minimising spots and redness, and my freckles still shine through. I read on the Boots website that this could also be used as an under eye concealer, as a concealer I felt like it did quite a nice job so if you're going away on holiday this could be a nice 2-in-1 product for you, plus it has SPF 15 which is always welcomed. I've found this to be light on the skin, and it doesn't feel like I'm wearing a base when I have this on.

Overall I really liked this 123 Perfect colour correcting cream, and don't regret picking it up one bit! You can find it here for £9.99.

Younique Lucrative Lip Gloss

I have wanted a clear lipgloss to wear over more drying lipsticks for a while now, so was really grateful when the lovely Becky sent one my way. 'Loyal'* is one of ten glosses in Youique's Lucrative Lipgloss range. They're all packaged in the same sturdy looking casing and come complete with a handy mirror on the side.
Loyal is a clear gloss, with what appears to be a lot of shimmer running through it, although once this is on the lips it isn't half a scary as it may look in the tube! In fact I think this slight shimmer helps give lips a more plump effect which is always an added bonus! 

I've found that Loyal to be very comfortable to wear on the lips as it isn't sticky at all! Although It's the applicator on this which makes the product really easy to apply and I simply adore the shape of it! If I'm using this over another product I never use the wand itself to apply the gloss as I don't want to stain it, instead I will simply place the product on the back of my hand, then apply to the lips with a brush or my fingers. Despite really loving the wand this comes with, I also love this way of applying the gloss as you can alter just how much you want to use on the lips.
I have enjoyed trying Loyal with different lipsticks over the past week or so, Although one of my favouite combos has to be this one which I posted on instagram yesterday, I found that the gloss needed to be retouched after a couple of hours, but didnt take away from the overall lipstick wear time.

At $15 this isn't the cheapest lipgloss in the world, but if your after a nice quality clear gloss, this could be the one for you! Younique offer a lovely range of colours which you can see here. Its full of amazingly pigmented shades which would really give liquid lipsticks a run for their money!

Do you like wearing a gloss over your lipstick?

Back to school beauty!

Since today officially marks the start of September, I figured I'd kick the month off with a back to school make up post. Personally my school was pretty strict when It came to make up, so I've gone for a more natural look which involves just five products (perfect if you're a little lazy like me!).

Face - I know not every girl is confident leaving the house bare faced, which is why I've included this super cheap Osiris BB Cream I found in body care for just a pound! (although I can only find it online for £3.99 here). I just love using this on my skin as it gives me a lovely glow and just really helps to blur those imperfections, without looking like I'm wearing a face full of make up! This is a complete winner in my book, and an essential no girl should be without! Although sometimes BB cream alone just isn't enough on bad skin days, which is why I've included this £2.50 Essence concealer, to help cover up any imperfections still coming through. I feel like this is definitely one of the better concealers on the highstreet and will be reviewing very soon!

Eyes - I feel like filled in brows could be a little too much for school days, so I've simply added this clear mascara from MUA to help tame them! I use this on a daily basis and think it does a wonderful job, best of all its just a pound! Next I considered lashes, although personally mascara can be quite a big giveaway that you're wearing make up and a more natural looking one is the way to go. I've picked an Essence one which isn't too in your face, I would however recommend a brown mascara if you're looking for an even more natural look.. I just don't happen to own one!

Lips - Finally I've picked a natural looking tinted lip balm to keep your lips hydrated though out the day. This is peach kiss from the Babylips line and just acts as a really lovely 'my lips but better shade'

So there you have it, my back to school make up picks! Are there any products you would add or remove from this list?